Outside of the main governing house they used within the city she noted most of the lights were off, even at this time of night that was unusual. Tracing the outside of the building she found four guards posted despite a building that looked seemingly empty.
So she did the first thing she could think of. Tugging the zipper of her jacket down to expose the deep v-neck t-shirt she was wearing before hauling her neckline down a little bit more. Her bra sat comfortably right above where the material stopped making it look just slutty enough to be believable. Approaching the guards at the back door, the only ones posted at the main entrance, she tripped like she was drunk and giggled to herself as she caught herself on the wall beside one of them.
“Hi,” she said with her biggest, most flirtatious grin. He sized her up immediately, determining she wasn’t a threat before replying casually.
“‘Ello. A bit far from home aren’t you?”
“General Faulkner sent me. I’m a donation for the… vampires.” She whispered the words carefully like it was a big secret. This was the moment of truth. However, if they weren’t here the guards would think she was insane or suspicious and either way she was about to fail. But Mr Tall and Militant just stared down at her unblinkingly.
“They were fed a few hours ago. You can have your turn tomorrow bloodwhore.” Again with that term. She gritted her teeth together and forced a smile, anything to make it look like she didn’t want to jump on top of him and beat his face in.
“I know… I know. But General Faulkner said that tomorrow is the big day so they need extra… juicing.” She giggled like the term was endearing, making the soldier stare at her for a moment before glancing at his partner. Neither of them seemed to know the validity of her statement so they finally nodded and turned, unlocking the door to let her in. She grinned, almost with excitement, before stepping toward it.
“Lewis will see you into their cages.”
“Of course,” she said with a sharp nod, mock saluting him before giggling again. Neither of them was taking her serious that was good. The door was then propped open and she slipped past, followed by Lewis, who quickly took the lead.
He led her through winding corridors that quickly made her feel turned around if not for the fact she knew this building inside and out from her thorough training. She didn’t need him to lead her down to the cages when she knew where they were. The very same place they had pinned her against guys twice her size, watching the winner beat his opponent nearly to death. It was gruesome, dirty and completely undignified.
They descended the stairs into the basement where the cages were set up for the fights, but they had since been turned into homes much like the vampires had for their humans.
Lewis fished out a set of keys from his pocket, turning to face her, scrutinizing her with a frown.
“I swear I know you from somewhere.” She shrugged and giggled again, watching him turn away once more. Even if he did recognise her now, she couldn’t risk letting him recognise her later. Moving quickly, she slipped up behind him and brushed against his hip with another stupid, drunk giggle. She knocked the keys from his hand while at the same time reaching for the gun she’d spotted holstered on his hip. Too quick to be caught by him she unlocked the safety, twisted and then pressed the mouth against the underside of his chin, pulling the trigger. Blood flew everywhere and she heard the vampires hiss at the smell of it.
“Sorry, Lewis,” she said in a none-too-serious tone before sweeping to pick up the keys and moved to the first cage. Peering into it with a frown, it wasn’t Nero.
“I can see his attraction to you more clearly now.” A bored voice came from the body curled against the back of the cage.
“Clovis?”
“Beautiful and deadly, his two favorite things.”
“He doesn’t call me a warrior for no reason.”
“Indeed.” She went through the ring, shoving key after key into the hole before finally clicking it out of place and opening the door.
“What the hell happened?”
“The agency attacked in the morning when we were sleeping and helpless. Most of the family were burnt by the sun, but Nero and I are both old enough that it takes a bit more than a few hours exposure to kill us. Maybe an hour or two longer and it would’ve taken effect.”
“Don’t be so smug about it.” She watched him rise and come over to her. “Still doesn’t answer my question though.”
“The agency came. It would seem they are bored of being under vampire control. They believed they would be able to take back control by capturing all of the old ones, the council, and delivering the true death to them.”
“So the entire council was captured?” she asked incredulously.
“Of course not, do not be so preposterous. Only a few of them.”
“Like Nero,” she said, playing along with some suspicion. She recalled Rose telling her Nero didn’t want to be a part of the council. She had never exposed why but the words came to mind as Clovis spoke.
“Yes, unfortunately.”
“How the hell did he get caught? He’s always going on about being so old and so fabulous.”
“Because your father was there and said they had captured you on your way out of the area.”
“How-“ She frowned, swallowing the lump that suddenly formed in her throat. There was only one vampire who knew she was out of town besides Nero, one who had deliberately locked her in a cage only 2 hours ago. But worse than that: her father knew she was alive. “He turned himself in to free me.”
“That was the arrangement and I told him it was a preposterous idea.”
“I’m getting you a thesaurus for Christmas.”
“So naturally he came all the way to the city and low and behold you were not here, but we were captured none the less.”
“Where is he now?”
“His father came for him.”
“His father? I thought his father is a vampire.”
“It seems his father is interested in disbanding the council to enact a dictatorship.”
So then what were her father and his father doing working together? She shook her head, focusing herself again. Whatever the answer, it didn’t matter. Nero might not be in immediate danger with his father leading the charge, but she needed to get to him nonetheless.
“Do you know where he is, where they’re keeping him?” She turned to Clovis before freezing again. If she went to Nero, she would have to confront her father. That was not something she had ever thought she would have to do.
“I do.” Clovis brushed himself off casually before taking the key from the lock of his cage and tossing it in the air thoughtfully before turning to the other vampires caged in the room. He made his way over to each one and opened them, releasing the vampires who bared their fangs at her and the scent of blood in the room. Quill steeled herself, raising her chest as she held out the stake as threateningly as she could manage.
They laughed at her, maybe not out loud, but she could see it in their eyes as they walked by her.
“You’re welcome for saving you,” she said with a sneer, rolling her eyes back at them before turning to Clovis. He began walking to the stairs, moving up them at human pace for her benefit as she trailed slowly after him. Her body was aching a lot more now that she’d managed to overexert herself with those moves on Lewis. From upstairs the guard she had left behind screamed in horror as the vampires descended on him.
He reached the door, holding it open for her. Not bothering to slow his pace for her human speed.
“Why do you owe Nero your allegiance?”
“Because he is my sire.” It was such a simple answer and Clovis’ delivery of it conveyed that with every inflected tone of boredom.
“That’s it? He killed you so you serve him like a slave for eternity?”
“It is the way of our kind,” Clovis spoke so casually about it all Quill could do was shake her head. She didn’t know what else she was supposed to say.
The s
treets were empty and eerie with their unnerving silence. It was as though every inhabitant within a 5-kilometer radius had cleared out thanks to a sixth sense. But human instinct had a good way of serving each individual with a sense of self-preservation.
Clovis led them through the streets with a comfortable ease before drawing them into the upper-class suburban district. Quill felt her skin prickle, standing on edge as she walked by street after street that she was far too familiar with. Homes whose owners she knew, whose children she’d gone to school with. Each turn off she past brought her closer to the past she had been running from since she was 17. But Clovis didn’t notice her unease and if he did he didn’t acknowledge it at all.
They reached their destination, standing outside of a manor not so different from the one Nero possessed. In fact, the unnerving similarities were hard to miss. Both manors possessed a Georgian style architecture, huge pillars outside of the main entrance almost as if guarding the main way. But where the woodwork was expected to be white someone had gone around and painted it all black giving the house a very ominous and foreboding appearance. Understandably this might be why humans kept their distance from the vampires.
But Clovis descended upon the house with a familiar nonchalance leaving Quill to hurry after him as he pressed the door open and they both slipped inside. The interior had forgone electricity, perhaps a personal choice of the owner’s or an attempt to add to the eerie atmosphere, but the hallway was lit only by sconces of candles along the walls. Clovis carried on through the manor as though he had lived there for centuries, pushing a door open into a primary meeting room.
A knot of tension balled in Quill’s stomach and she pulled her stake from her jeans again, feeling better the moment it was in her hand. She kept a tight grip on it as she entered slowly behind him, looking around the room taking in everyone who was standing there just staring at her.
“Father.” Her throat tightened instantly as her eyes fell over the familiar figure that had once towered over her to incite fear. The general nodded his head, just the smallest of a smirk playing on his features before she looked at Nero. He was sitting casually in a winged back chair, nursing one of his mixtures of wine and blood. She wasn’t sure when she had grown so accustomed to his facial expressions that she could note the tension in his casual grin, but it was there. She could read him so perfectly now, knowing that while he looked comfortable on the outside he was far from being just that. Instinctively her hand wrapped tighter around her stake as she stopped by Clovis’ side.
“I’m glad you could join us, Isabelle.” Her eyes jumped to the third man in the room looking as smug as her father did beside him, but this time she noted the similarities between him and Nero. They both had the same angular nose, a chiseled jaw that came down and was finished off with full rosy lips and dark soulful eyes that spoke of horrors she couldn’t even begin to imagine. “You may call me Manning.”
“Manning?” She couldn’t help the tone of incredulity that slipped out in her question. It wasn’t the name she was expecting from someone supposedly old enough to be a Viking. Although he did look the part.
“The powerful and valiant.”
“Ah, right, of course,” she said rolling her eyes as she looked at Nero. This time his amusement was real as he watched her, but there was still a tension lingering in his body language like he knew the dangerous line she was toeing. “Listen, I hate beating around the bush. Let’s jump right into why I’m here, or why you’ve taken your own son hostage and what I can do to free him.”
“Nero isn’t a hostage, he’s here willingly, aren’t you son?”
“About as willing as a whore.” He sipped his drink and she looked back at Manning and then to her father.
“Crude, but fair. As I taught you.” Manning lost no smugness as he carried on, “well, as you are familiar the agency has diverged from the plan that was developed for them when we originally created the city. I am apt to blame the Desecrated, they have a foul habit of ruining things they don’t understand the bigger picture of. The agency was created to keep the humans within the cities walls, obviously they have failed and in their failure grown far too curious and power-hungry for their own good. It was necessary that we right their wrongs and among that is the council and their errors.”
“Okay,” she said with a frown, glancing at Nero. “And what does that have to do with the two of us? Nero and I want nothing to do with the city or the council. We’ve lived away from it all-”
“You are our legacies.” Her father cut her off and she turned to look at him with narrowed eyes.
“I’m nothing like you.”
He laughed, “on the contrary I believe you’ll find you’re quite a bit like me.”
“No, I’m not. I have a heart - and a soul - and most importantly a conscience.” She tried to feign conviction if only to convince herself.
“Do you?” he asked with interest. “Nero was telling us all about your “relationship” and you seemed quite reluctant, in his tales, to give him your heart. He also spoke about your ability to kill a man without blinking and how that is what most attracted you to him when we first introduced you.”
“You didn’t introduce us, Nero was stalking me.”
“Actually, you met before you ran away from home. You probably don’t remember as you were quite young but after that, knowing you were to be his, he has been watching you.”
“No.” She shook her head looking at Nero with a frown. He was frowning too but not arguing. “That’s not true, is it?”
“I knew that you were to be my subscriber, but I never expected you to turn out to be my mate.”
“Yes, that was a convenient turn of events I have to say. One that truly is in our favour. Once you are both fully mated, and you turned Isabelle dear, you will be an unstoppable force.”
“You will rule an empire that we have forged before your feet.” It was Nero’s turn to glare as he turned to look at his father with contempt.
“I have ruled an empire for you before and we both know how that turned out.”
“You were ill prepared at the time. Essentially a child who I put on a throne before he was ready. But the wars we ravaged and the people...” Manning’s eyes glinted in remembrance.
“I don’t want it. I never have and now, I won’t have it. Like Isabelle said: we want to live away from all of this, we want nothing to do with the council or this so-called empire. We just want to be with each other, right?” He turned to look at her again, but she felt sick. He had known all along they were going to be forced together. He hadn’t told her any of this, it was just another set of lies and misleading information he had given her.
“I don’t know anymore.”
“Isabelle... Listen to me. None of this was done of my volition. They plotted behind my back, this is why I lived out of the city walls. I wanted to be free of my father’s tyranny. But Clovis...” Nero looked at his manservant with a hatred that burned through her, forged by their connection, “betrayed me. Set us both up. He ran off and told our fathers we had begun to mate, he was the one that arranged for my capture and helped them plan all of this. He put himself in that home to wait for you because your father knew you would look there, sooner or later. This is all them, not me, I swear it to you.”
She could feel the earnestness of his words and how much he worried the words and explanation wouldn’t be enough through the bond. She frowned, hearing her father speak but the blood in her ears was pounding too hard she couldn’t hear him.
“All my life-” she cut him off, turning every pair of eyes to her. “All my life you have dictated what I will do and how I will be. I was nothing more than your puppet and trying so hard to be a good daughter, but it still wasn’t enough. I wasn’t perfect enough, strong enough, or smart enough; so you tried to beat it into me. Your cruelty, your cold heart, your will to survive before anyone else. I watched you kill my mother slowly, burn terror into my little sister while you beat me near to death and
you expect me to turn around now and forgive you? Go along with this asinine plan to rule the world? Are you that stupid or are you just blind enough to all of your imperfections and shortcomings that you can’t see that to them- to all of them, you are disposable. Whatever empire you think you’ll rule through us, your little puppets and prodigies, you will die before you live to see it. None of them would ever consider turning a snake like you into one of them. They would be fools to give you a weapon that you would just drive into their backs when they weren’t looking. You’re a sad, pathetic man and I will always hate you for what you did to my family. I may share your blood, but that’s the only thing I will share with you. It will be a cold day in hell before I bow down and let you use me and Nero on some ridiculous contrived power trip.”
She turned suddenly and drove the stake into Clovis’ heart, his body suddenly exploding all over her in a painting of guts and gore.
She heard Nero chuckle, turning slowly to see he had moved in the time she had and now held her father from behind. One hand dug into his throat, “look at her, my beauty, my warrior queen. She was never yours because she’ll never belong to anyone.” She didn’t even flinch when he tore his throat right out, her father’s eyes widening as he sunk to the ground. She figured she probably should’ve felt something - anything - be it pleasure or heartbreak, but the only thing that washed over her was numbness. She didn’t even have the luxury of feeling avenged because that had to have been Nero’s intention.
“Find someone else to be your beast father, or do it yourself for a change. We want nothing to do with your plotting, not now - not ever.” He dropped her father and the bit of him he still held in his hand. Wiping the flesh off on his pants before sucking his fingers clean and walked over to her, he looped an arm around her waist.
“Come, you’re tired and we need to talk.” He brushed his lips against her temple as he steered her out of the room in a daze.
Desecrated Beauty (Twisted Fairy Tales #1) Page 17